Repeat after me – Apple is not giving away any free iPads, iPhones or MacBooks in memory of Steve Jobs.

Nevertheless, it appears that many people believe that the company is doing a special promotion to honour the passing of their late founder judging by the number of people who are currently being scammed on Facebook.

To celebrate the life of Steve, we have decided to give away 1000 iPad 2's to honour Steve, who passed away earlier this week.

If you do click on the link you are taken to a webpage that encourages you to share the message with your Facebook friends (adding the phrase “Thank you Steve”).

Notice how the page explains that time is limited, and there are only a small number of free iPads remaining – that’s a deliberate trick on the part of the scammers to fool you into rushing into the scam without thinking.

Regular readers will not be surprised to hear that the scammers are pretending to offer free Apple hardware in the hope of driving traffic to revenue-generating online surveys.

A similar scam is being seen regarding free limited edition iPhones, again allegedly being given away in memory of Steve Jobs:

In this case, the scammers urge you to share the link with your Facebook friends, adding the message “RIP Steve”:

Make sure that you keep informed about the latest scams spreading fast across Facebook and other internet attacks. Join the Sophos page on Facebook, where over 100,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.

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About the author

Graham Cluley runs his own award-winning computer security blog at https://www.grahamcluley.com, and is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances, co-hosts the weekly "Smashing Security" podcast, and is an international public speaker. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley

10 comments on “There are NO free iPads / iPhones in memory of Steve Jobs”

Doesn't anyone read the articles on this website? (I do, of course.)
There is no such thing as a free iPad, or any Apple technology in that case.
I can't believe people fall for this stuff every time; then again, it is in human nature to do such things.